The busiest station in the UK outside London is Birmingham New Street, with more than 31m, followed by Leeds, Manchester Picadilly and Brighton.

South West Trains, which runs the Reading-Waterloo service, says it is working with the Department of Transport to deliver capacity for almost 10,000 extra peak-time passengers travelling on the main suburban and Reading lines by 2019.

The proposals include bringing platforms 21 to 24 of the former international terminal back into use and extending platforms one to four at Waterloo to accommodate longer trains.